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The Future Energy Jobs Bill has passed through the Senate of Illinois, United States, with measures to support the continued operation of nuclear power plants as part of a package to support clean energy in the region.

Nuclear energy is an important pillar of a future energy system aimed at meeting the world’s growing energy needs and avoiding the worst effects of climate change, according to a new report published today by the International Energy Agency.

The Paris Agreement will require ambitious action across all sectors. A priority should be the decarbonisation of the electricity supply sector, using nuclear energy in harmony with other forms of low carbon generation.

Preparations are underway for the restart of the Sendai 1 reactor in Japan. Sendai 1 is a pressurized water reactor (PWR) sited on the southwest coast of Kyushu, the third largest island of Japan. It is owned and operated by the Kyushu Electric Power Company.

The World Nuclear Association has published reports on nuclear fuel supply and demand at roughly two yearly intervals. The report published today is the 17th in the series and extends the forecasting period to 2035. It includes scenarios covering a range of possibilities for nuclear power.

The action taken today by the Austrian government is supposedly to challenge the decision by the European Commission to approve the Contract for Difference mechanism proposed for Hinkley Point C. However, the true motivation of the action was revealed by Austrian Federal Chancellor Werner Faymann, who last week issued a statement saying: "This is a further important step in our anti-nuclear policy, whose long-term objective is a nuclear-free Europe."

The Global Apollo Programme Report has the objective of making carbon-free baseload electricity less costly than coal within ten years. Nuclear generation working with renewables has already allowed countries such as France and Sweden to achieve the goals of this report.

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Entergy Corporation yesterday announced plans to close the Palisades nuclear power plant by 1 October 2018. The company has also agreed to the early termination of an agreement under which Consumers Energy was to buy almost all of the Michigan plant's output until 2022.

The Pile Fuel Cladding Silo at Sellafield is "a step closer to being cleaned up" thanks to the installation of six 12.4 tonne stainless steel doors designed to open the building's 'locked vaults'. The silo is one of the 'big four' legacy facilities at the Sellafield site in Cumbria, England.

Kyushu Electric Power Company yesterday began the process of restarting the reactor of unit 1 at its Sendai nuclear power plant in Japan's Kagoshima prefecture following a periodic inspection. The prefectural governor had opposed the restart of the unit, which resumed operation in August 2015 following a shutdown of the country's nuclear fleet.

Construction of a nuclear fuel fabrication plant has begun in Kazakhstan, KazAtomProm, CGN and Areva have announced. The plant will use Areva fabrication technology and will be managed by a joint venture between KazAtomProm and China General Nuclear Power Corporation (CGNPC).

Media coverage of Hinkley Point C has tended to focus on EDF Energy’s financial agreement with the UK government and is only now being recognised for the economic benefits it will bring to the local economy, Nigel Knee, head of the company's nuclear policy, said yesterday. EDF Energy's updated analysis shows that almost £4 billion ($5 billion) will go into the regional economy of the South West of England over the lifetime of the project, Knee told delegates at the Budapest Energy Summit.

The USA has asked the International Atomic Energy Agency to monitor and verify the disposition of surplus plutonium in South Carolina, US energy secretary Ernest Moniz said on 5 December. Moniz's announcement was made at an IAEA conference which aims to strengthen global nuclear security.

The French nuclear safety authority has accepted analyses submitted by EDF on the serviceability of ten of its 900 MWe reactors in which some steam generator parts were found to contain high concentrations of carbon. The utility will soon submit analyses for two 1450 MWe units.

Germany's Federal Constitutional Court today ruled that, although the country's 2011 phase-out legislation is essentially in compliance with the constitution, power utilities are entitled to "reasonable" compensation for the early shut down of their nuclear power reactors.

Wind and solar power are transforming the electricity industry, but not fast enough to put the world on track for the UNFCCC's Paris Agreement target to hold the global temperature increase well below 2°C, according to László Varró, chief economist of the International Energy Agency. This "climate stabilisation" target needs nuclear power to play a significant role in the low-carbon power mix, Varró told delegates at the Budapest Energy Summit yesterday.

Toro Energy has redesigned the process flow sheet for its Wiluna uranium project in Western Australia to reduce the cost and size of the project's processing facility, following successful beneficiation and process design studies, the company announced today.

Developing production capacity to meet the world's uranium needs, rather than the availability of uranium resources, is a likely challenge over coming years according to the latest edition of the OECD Nuclear Energy Agency and International Atomic Energy Agency joint report on uranium resources, production and demand.

Italy is committed to effective nuclear regulatory oversight, but it faces challenges related to resources and needs to further develop policies for nuclear safety, decommissioning and radioactive waste management, an International Atomic Energy Agency peer review mission has concluded.

Legislators in the US state of Illinois yesterday passed a bill recognising the contribution of nuclear energy to the state's clean energy efforts and ensuring the continued operation of the state's nuclear power plants. The Future Energy Jobs Bill will also advance renewable energy and expand energy efficiency initiatives.

With the final investment decision to build the Hinkley Point C nuclear power plant in Somerset, together with progress in other planned new nuclear projects, 2016 has been a "momentous" year for the UK, delegates at the Nuclear Industry Association's Nuclear2016 conference in London heard yesterday.

United Innovation Corporation, a subsidiary of Russian state nuclear corporation Rosatom, has signed a memorandum of understanding with Brazilian consultancy CK3 for the development, construction and operation of an irradiation centre in Brazil. The document was signed by the director-generals of the two companies, respectively, Denis Cherednichenko and Renato Cherkezian.

The first reactor pressure vessel (RPV) has been lifted into place at Georgia Power's Vogtle nuclear construction project in Georgia. Vogtle 3's RPV was lifted into place two days after the placement of the CA01 module was completed at Vogtle 4.

Officials from KazAtomProm - the world's biggest uranium producer - and the Kazakh government have visited China for talks on enhanced cooperation in the uranium mining and nuclear power sectors. The Kazakh delegation was headed by Askar Mamin, first deputy prime minister of Kazakhstan.

Hong Kong-based power company CLP Holdings Limited has won a bid to acquire a 17% stake in Yangjiang Nuclear Power Company Limited from China General Nuclear. The transaction is expected to be completed by mid-2017.

The Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA) has been given 30 days to pay a $140,000 civil penalty proposed by the US Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) for fire watch violations at the Browns Ferry nuclear power plant in Alabama.

A multi-disciplinary US Nuclear Regulatory Commission team has begun a 'top-to-bottom' review at Entergy's Pilgrim nuclear power plant. The review will take a total of three weeks and is the third and largest NRC inspection conducted as part of the regulator's heightened scrutiny of the Massachusetts plant.

The excavation of an underground used nuclear fuel final disposal facility at Olkiluoto, Finland, is set to begin next month. Last week the country's Radiation and Nuclear Safety Authority declared waste management company Posiva to be in a position to start construction of the repository.

The process of sliding the arched structure into place to shield the damaged unit 4 of the Chernobyl nuclear power plant in Ukraine has been completed, the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development has announced. London-based EBRD said a ceremony in Chernobyl today marked the successful conclusion of the sliding operation, which it described as a key milestone before finalisation of the international program to transform Chernobyl into an environmentally safe and secure state by November 2017.

South African nuclear utility Eskom said it is confident its probabilistic seismic safety studies for Thyspunt adequately characterise the site's seismic hazards. It denied allegations by a research institute that it had not shared its findings on the seismic safety of the Eastern Cape site.

A memorandum of understanding aimed at promoting cooperation on nuclear safety regulation was recently signed between South Korea's Nuclear Safety and Security Commission and Saudi Arabia's King Abdullah City for Atomic and Renewable Energy.

The University of Bristol, in England, has developed new technology that uses nuclear waste to generate electricity in a nuclear-powered battery. A team of physicists and chemists from the university has "grown a man-made diamond" that, when placed in a radioactive field, is able to generate a small electrical current. The developers say the innovation could solve some of the problems of nuclear waste, clean electricity generation and battery life.

Cold hydrostatic testing has been started at unit 3 of the Tianwan nuclear power plant in China's Jiangsu province, China Nuclear Industry 23 Construction Company Limited has announced. The Russian-supplied VVER-1000 is scheduled to start up in 2018.

UK regulators expect to complete the Generic Design Assessment process for Hitachi-GE's UK Advanced Boiling Water Reactor as scheduled, in December of 2017, but doubt the GDA for the Westinghouse AP1000 will be done by March as previously stated.

UPDATED The proposal to force older nuclear power plants to close in Switzerland has been rejected in a referendum. The five reactors that provide over one-third of electricity can continue to operate according to their economic lives.

SNC-Lavalin has been awarded a pre-project contract from Argentina's Nucleoeléctrica Argentina SA for the Candu nuclear new build project at the Atucha site in the district of Zàrate. The Canadian engineering group said yesterday that, "if this project materialises, it would be the first Candu new build since Cernavoda Unit 2 came on line in 2007".

The head of Energoatom has described the World Association of Nuclear Operators' first cross-regional review, which is taking place at the Rovno nuclear power plant in Ukraine, as a "very useful" exercise that reflects changes to WANO's approach following the 2011 Fukushima accident in Japan.

New York State's Court of Appeals has ruled that part of Entergy's application to renew the operating licences for the Indian Point nuclear plant must be reviewed at the state level. The New York State Department of State (NYSDOS) has already concluded that the application is inconsistent with its coastal management requirements.

South African utility Eskom will stick with its plan to invite this year applications from companies interested in building new nuclear plants. This is despite the government's newly announced aim to increase the country's nuclear capacity by 1359 MWe by 2037 - less and over a longer timeframe than the previously announced target.

Adriènne Kelbie, chief executive of the UK's Office for Nuclear Regulation (ONR), reflected on a "hectic and rewarding" introduction to the nuclear industry in a recent interview with World Nuclear News (WNN). Kelbie, who joined ONR in January, described a "positive year" for the UK nuclear safety and security regulator, but acknowledged there is still "plenty of hard work ahead" to help ONR be "fit for a busier and more challenging future".